


The Trouble with Fairytails

by Kedreeva



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Audrey x Duke x Nathan, Dragon!Nathan, Multi, Threegulls, Werewolf!Duke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 16:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5463329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kedreeva/pseuds/Kedreeva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Audrey wakes up to find a dragon in her apartment. A very confused, very angry dragon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Trouble with Fairytails

Audrey woke suddenly to an unearthly wail and the sound of someone crashing around her apartment. Her gun was in her hands before she even really registered she was awake, but before she could shout any kind of warning, the commotion ceased. Adrenaline pressed her heartbeat to her skin as she took a few deep breaths, trying to see what had happened.

Some kind of pitiful noise keened out from under a pile of blankets - _her_ blankets, she realized, looking at her stripped bed - and her attention snapped to the couch.  


Slipping from the bed, bare feet making not a whisper of sound, Audrey moved across her apartment toward the distressed lump of bedding. When she rounded the edge of the couch, she froze. Spread out across the floor was the largest bat wing she had ever seen. It was an earthy sort of bronze color, the shafts of sunlight streaming in through the window lighting it up with a rainbow of iridescence.  


It twitched, and she aimed her gun at it.  


With one hand, she reached forward, bending just enough to grab the edge of the blanket. When she moved, whatever was beneath it began to flail and screech, writhing in a way that suggested it wanted away from her. She tightened her grip on the blanket and pulled in time with the thing’s motions, until it managed to free itself.  
Lying on the floor in front of her, panting and eyeing her suspiciously, was… was… a dragon. She stared back, feeling just as shocked to see it as it was to see her, forgetting even to keep her gun raised.  


“What the hell,” fell out of her mouth unbidden, and the thing gave an angry hiss, hefting its slender body to its feet and spreading its wings in a display clearly meant to threaten her. She brought her gun to bear again, but she wasn’t sure what good it would do. There was a half dozen feet between them and there was no way she’d get off enough shots to take down the horse-sized beast before it got to her.  


"Nice dragon,” she told it, edging sideways toward her front door. She wasn’t particularly keen on releasing it into the wild, but it _had_ to have been created by a Trouble, which meant that if she could find the person in need of her help, the dragon could be _uncreated_. “You wanna go outside? I won’t stop you.”  


Its jaw dropped open and Audrey was forced to cover her ears as it _screamed_.  


“Hey!” she shouted back at it as loudly as she could. Below her, she heard pounding footsteps as Duke climbed to where she was. The dragon must have heard as well, because it turned its attention to the door, hindquarters coiling in preparation for a jump.  


Before it could do anything, Audrey yanked open the door and rushed out of it, straight into Duke, who stumbled back a pace, not expecting to have an Audrey throwing herself into his arms.  


“What?” he began, and then yelped as the dragon appeared in the doorway, snarling and snapping but too large to actually fit through. “Jesus, Audrey, what the hell is that?  


She shoved at him, moving him out of the path and reach of the flailing, pissed off dragon. “Trouble,” she grunted with another shove. “It was just there when I woke- oh!” she gasped, belly sinking. “Nathan! Nathan!” she raised her voice the second time, wondering how he had missed the commotion.  


The dragon screamed again, writhing in the doorway, and she could see it was getting out by inches. One wing flopped out, and then there was a whirlwind of motion as it cracked the door frame and scrabbled free of the wreckage. Its wings cracked open and it jumped for them-  


\- and hit the railing beside them, tail lashing as it launched itself clumsily into the air. Audrey felt the wind of its passing, let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Duke’s hand was too tight on her arm as he watched the beast wing away over the cove, and she shook him off.  


“Audrey,” he called after her as she stormed back into her apartment, stepping carefully over the busted wood of the entrance.  


“Nathan!” she shouted, determined to ignore the sinking feeling in her gut. He had to be here. He must have been in the bathroom, in the shower, or- “ _Nathan_!”  


“Audrey,” Duke said softly from behind her, and she turned to see. He was wearing that look, the same one he’d worn when he told her about the Hunter meteor storm, the one that said he knew very well exactly how much she didn’t want to hear what he was about to say. “I think that _was_ Nathan.”

\-----------

Dwight was nowhere to be found when Audrey and Duke finally reached the police department. No one, in fact, was anywhere to be found, although they ran across a small herd of dog-sized unicorns, a walking tree, and a gryphon on the way over. Thankfully Duke had been quick enough to answer the question the sphinx at the door had asked, for all the good the empty police department did them.  


“This is bad,” Duke declared, and Audrey whacked him gently on the arm for stating the obvious.  


“We gotta find who started this,” she said, pawing at papers and pictures on the desks around them, hoping that _someone_ had started to investigate this before things had gone to hell. She appeared to be out of luck, however; everything appeared to be the usual sort of small-town disturbance reports.  


“Dwight still has the town-wide PA system hooked up for Trouble announcements,” Duke offered more helpfully. “We could ask any… humans… to come here?”  


“That- that’s actually good,” she said. “Although, not here. We don’t want anyone answering the sphinx wrong.” She wasn’t sure what would happen if someone answered the riddles wrong, but judging by the size of the thing’s claws, she knew she didn’t want to find out. “Maybe one of the warehouses on the edge of town?”  


Duke shrugged like it didn’t matter to him where they picked. “I’ll go find the mic.” He peeled away from her as she headed for Nathan’s office on the off chance that someone had left any kind of note for him or for her regarding the outbreak of mythical creatures.  


When a search of the office turned up squat and Duke still hadn’t returned, Audrey poked her head out to check on him, worried that perhaps he’d run into something new. A quick scan of the area showed no sign of her partner, and the feeling of _something is wrong_ began to crawl up the back of her neck.  


“Duke?” she called hesitantly, hoping he was still within earshot.  


A low growl answered her from one of the side rooms.  


She swallowed, hand shifting to her sidearm just in case. “Duke?” she called again, already dreading what she might find.  


One of the desks shifted, legs squeaking horrendously against the floor, and a lithe, black form padded around the edge of it. Another low growl emanated from the thing’s chest as its brilliant red eyes locked on her. Its front paws were almost human, slender fingers ending in wicked long claws that clicked on the linoleum as it continued walking toward her. The hackled fur over its spine did not inspire confidence in it having a friendly disposition.  


_Werewolf_ , her mind supplied as she took a step back from the human-wolf beast before her.  


Duke’s necklaces hung like thin collars around its huge neck, the tatters of the rest of his clothing clinging to him in shreds.  


“Duke,” she breathed, realizing that whatever had happened to Nathan had happened now to Duke as well.  


Duke’s lips peeled back from long, white canines, another growl rumbling deep in his chest. Audrey could feel her hands shaking as she dropped carefully to the floor, to one knee, her sidearm forgotten. There was no way she was going to shoot him, knowing that somewhere in there he was still Duke. Her bullets were not exactly silver, though she wondered how much that would matter to a Trouble-induced lycanthrope.  


Instead, she spread her hands, palms up, and ducked her head so that she wasn’t looking him in the eyes.  


The growl faded and she listened to his claws click closer and closer, until she could feel the heat of his breath by her ear. He snuffled around at her hair and she kept herself very still, hoping that her scent would stir some kind of memory in him. When he paused, she closed her eyes and reached up with one hand, slowly, until her fingertips touched the fur on his long jaw.  


“Duke,” she said quietly, soothingly, hoping to reach whatever part of him was still hers. “It’s me. It’s Audrey.” The wolf made a soft sound in return, and her ear became a wash of warm and wet as he licked it.  


She let out a breath and lifted her head, risked a glance at the werewolf standing before her. He regarded her with a wary sort of curiosity now, and she curled her fingers under his chin, ran them back toward his throat and then forward again in a soft scratch. His eyes closed and he pressed into the touch, turning his face so she could scrub at his cheek. Cautiously, she brought her other hand up, burying her fingers in his fur and moving so that she could rub the base of his ears.  


He whined, low and nice, and Audrey relaxed some more. Nathan had been wild as well, but they had been interrupted before she got a chance to soothe him. Seeing Duke give in to her touch gave her hope that they could bring Nathan around, too, if they came across him again.  


“Good boy,” she told Duke. He pressed into her hands harder. “You’re a good boy, Duke. But now we need to go find who started this.”  


He pulled his face from her hands and regarded her with those bright-red eyes. She didn’t see any recognition in them, but he seemed willing to let her live, which was something. Slowly, she clambered to her feet, one eye on Duke to see how he would take the change in positions. He didn’t move until she made to step away, and then it was only to walk to her side.  


Standing up, his back was level with her waist. She brushed her fingers over his fur, now sleek instead of bristled in fear. Now that he didn’t appear to be a threat, she had a chance to take a little closer look. He was oddly shaped for a canine - hands with fingers and thumbs, shoulders too wide, ears the wrong shape - but he was not even close to human. The effect left him somewhere in between, and Audrey wondered how much of himself he remembered; how much of her he remembered, if anything at all.  


She threw a glance over to where Duke had come from, knowing that the PA system must be in that direction, then she took in a breath, let it out slowly. “Okay then,” she said, more to steady herself than because she thought he would understand her. “Time to get everyone in one place and figure this out.”  


Duke leaned into her side, just for a second, and they headed off together.

\--------

They were halfway to the warehouse when a shadow passed over them from above. At her side, Duke bristled, lips pulling back from his teeth and ears laying flat against his skull as he looked skyward. A moment later, Audrey saw a flash of gleaming bronze, and then an ear-splitting shriek rent the air. Audrey clapped both hands over her ears and dashed sideways to the cover of a tree as Nathan wheeled around in the sky to come back their way.  


Duke remained standing in the middle of the street, humanoid paws planted firmly on the cement.  


“Duke!” she commanded sharply, but he only flicked one ear at her.  


Then his jaws lifted and a howl tore out of his throat, long and deep and _challenging_.  


Above them, Nathan screamed a challenge back, folded his wings, and dove.  


Audrey pulled her sidearm, aimed, and sent a bullet ricocheting off the pavement at Duke’s feet. He flinched, scattering to one side just before Nathan spread his wings open, all four taloned feet whipping forward to grab at the space where Duke had just been. He faltered at the empty space, unable to recover, and came to a crash landing a few yards down the street from them.  


Duke put himself between Audrey and Nathan, fur bristled up, but she moved forward quickly and grabbed at his scruff. “No!” she said firmly. Some part of her knew that there was no guarantee that Duke _understood_ the word, that he wouldn't turn wild on her, but when she removed her hands, he stayed rooted where she had put him. “Stay,” she added for good measure.  


Down the street, Nathan was picking himself up from the pavement, beautiful scales scuffed and one wing bloodied. He hissed at her as she approached, spreading his wings in the same sort of threat bluff he’d performed in her apartment, but quickly pulled the injured wing back close to his body as though it hurt. She wondered if it did, if the current Trouble afflicting him had turned off his own.  


She held up both hands, showing that there was nothing in them. “Nathan,” she said softly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”  


He backed up a step, turning his body so that his good side faced her, keeping his injured wing behind him. Even so, she could see the pale white of bone scraped open along the joint. She wondered if he would be able to get back into the air, if he had broken anything in his landing.  


“No one is going to hurt you,” she soothed, taking another few steps forward, palms still spread before her. Nathan opened his jaws, showing off all of his long, sharp teeth in another hiss. Audrey’s stomach fluttered with nerves, but she held her ground. “Let me help you, Nathan. It’s okay.”  


One more step, and Nathan reared up onto his hind legs, towering over her, and Audrey heard Duke’s answering growl, knew that he had disobeyed her to move close enough to help. Nathan looked over her shoulder at the werewolf threat, and Audrey used the distraction to close the last remaining space between them. Holding her breath, she placed both palms on Nathan’s smooth-scaled shoulder.  


All of Nathan’s muscles went rigid under her touch, the scales popping up into a sandpaper-rough pattern. She felt it when he curved his sinuous neck to look down at her, and unlike with Duke, she looked right back. This close she could see the pale blue-green of his eyes, of _Nathan’s_ eyes.  


“There you are,” she said softly, skating her hands over the raised scales of his shoulder, down his side as far as she could reach without moving too much. Under her touch, the scales flattened, turning mirror-smooth, and she could feel him relax.  


Slowly, Nathan dropped back to all fours, sickle claws clicking on the pavement, and Audrey stepped back just enough to let him. When his long snout came close enough, she extended one hand to him, a patient gesture of peace. His long, thin tongue flicked out, forked at the end, to almost curl around her wrist for the briefest of moments as he scented her. His breath was hot on her skin and smelled of spice and sulfur.  


“Oh, I really hope you do not breathe fire,” she said as she moved in close enough to scratch lightly around Nathan’s eye ridges. Like Duke, he leaned into the touch almost immediately, a low, stuttering thrum starting in his throat to show his appreciation. At least they both had one thing in common with their human selves; they both liked when she touched them.  


A soft whine from behind her drew both their attention to Duke. Nathan raised his wings, but Audrey, gently pushed the tip of his snout down and gave Duke a sharp look.  


“No,” she said to both of them. Duke’s ears flicked back and Nathan let his wings drop a fraction of an inch. “I mean it,” she added.  


Nathan nudged his face forward like a horse, butting into her and nearly bowling her over. She caught her balance and turned back to reprimand him, but then he swept one wing back and dipped his shoulder, a very clear offering for a ride.  


She hesitated. There was no guarantee that Nathan would take her where she wanted to go. No guarantee that he wouldn’t just fly off with her to wherever he pleased because his new dragon brain told him that was best.  


However, it wasn’t _that_ far, and he had been heading in the correct direction when he spotted them… and, she reasoned, riding dragonback was really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. At least, she hoped it was.  


Nathan let out a swirling whistle noise, and Audrey took a step forward. “You don’t even know where we’re going,” she told him as she put her hands back on his shoulder. His scales were pleasantly warm and the thrum started up again, vibrating under her fingers. He regarded her with patience, unmoving.  


“I guess we can try,” she surrendered after a moment, lifting one leg to try to figure out how to hop aboard. Nathan raised a forearm, creating the perfect step, and after a bit of a struggle, Audrey found herself astride his shoulders. “We’re going to Roger’s Storage Facility. It’s about half a mile down the road still.”  


Before she had even finished, Nathan was walking toward Duke. His gait was easy and smooth, rocking from side to side in a way a horse didn’t but a large cat would. Audrey tensed as they got close to Duke, but the huge werewolf simply fell into step beside them.  


Audrey smiled, a sense of hope flickering through her when Nathan batted out with his good wing, narrowly missing whacking Duke over the head with the edge, and all Duke did was step out of the way and grumble about it.  


She could have _sworn_ Nathan laughed.

\------------

When the warehouse idea turned out to be a bust - only two Troubled folks had turned up, and neither with a fitting Trouble for the situation - Audrey was forced to make arrangements for the gathering townsfolk. She was thankful for the openness with which the town dealt with the Troubles these days, everyone understanding quickly that they were to stay put and protect one another. She hoped that the warehouse was far enough away from whoever had been activated that the townsfolk making themselves comfortable there would not find themselves similarly turned into mythical beasts.  


The warehouse group would continue to grow, slowly, but she couldn’t sit still and count on that working. She was going to have to go back to town, see who she could rustle up by going door to door. It was going to be slow, but better than letting worry gnaw a hole in her while hoping the solution appeared. She knew better than to trust in that kind of luck.  


Once she was certain that they would be fine without her, Audrey called Nathan down from the roof and Duke padded to her side without argument. She was grateful for their presences; even if they couldn’t actually help her talk through possible solutions, she felt less alone to have them bracketing her, Nathan’s scaled hide warm under her left hand and Duke’s wiry fur brushing her right side as they headed back to town.  


Halfway there, Nathan startled off into the sky, though Duke didn’t react beyond an irritated growl. Audrey remained on alert for a few minutes after Nathan disappeared, but there was nothing wrong that she could see. She carded her fingers through Duke’s fur as they walked.  


“He’ll be back,” she told him, though she wasn’t sure it was Duke that needed the assurance. Duke pressed into her thigh as they walked, causing her to shift her gait to accommodate for a few paces. “I guess we should just start knocking on doors. See who… or _what_ answers.”  


Duke snorted like he understood, and then his gait picked up to a trot. He veered off the road, into the nearest neighborhood, nose in the air. Audrey made an impressed face there was no one around to see, and followed after him.  


His plan, as near as she could tell, was to choose houses at random and for her to knock on the doors where he stopped. She wasn’t sure she approved of the method, until she realized that the houses they were skipping probably didn’t have people in them; Duke’s hearing and sense of smell were most likely a _lot_ better than hers at the moment.  


One hour and three blocks of houses later, Audrey heard the beating of wings and the shrill call of a dragon approaching. She glanced up in time to see Nathan pass overhead and alight atop a house at the end of the street with much more grace than he’d had that morning. He bugled over and over again, the sound echoing all over the neighborhood.  


Audrey was just about to yell at him when she noticed that doors were opening along the street, the few folks that were still around peeking out to see what was causing the racket. In under two minutes, Nathan had called every human out from cover. He bugled one last time, standing up on his haunches and spreading his wings wide so that the iridescence was dazzling in the midday sun.  


She was just about to ask for everyone’s attention when she saw a young boy standing shyly in the entrance of a house not far from where she was. In his arms, he grasped a stuffed dragon, bright eyes trained on Nathan like he was the single greatest sight the child had ever witnessed. He couldn’t have been over five or six years old, but his parents were nowhere to be seen.  


“Duke,” she said, drawing the werewolf’s attention. She pointed to the child, and Duke turned to look. As soon as she started to move, Duke circled around, disappearing from view and appearing on the far side of the house so that the kid wouldn’t have anywhere to go if he wanted to take off away from her.  


The child noticed her when she was at the edge of his yard, but he didn’t try to retreat. “Is that your dragon?” he asked, eyes bright with wonder.  


Audrey glanced up to where Nathan was still perched on the rooftop down the street, and she smiled a little. “Yeah, that’s my dragon,” she confirmed as she approached.  


“Are you a princess?” the boy asked, and Audrey’s smiled widened.  


“I am not,” she said. “I am a police officer, though.”  


At that, the boy shied backward, into the house a step, and clutched his stuffed toy closer to his chest.  


“Oh, no, don’t worry,” she rushed to assure him. The child must have figured out that he was causing the Trouble; it had gotten a lot easier to handle the Troubles once they were out in the open and everyone started talking to their children and family and friends about them. “You’re not in trouble.”  


“I didn’t- I didn’t _mean_ to turn everyone into monsters,” the boy said quietly, still hugging his dragon tightly.  


“It’s okay, sweetie,” Audrey told him as she knelt beside him. “Did something happen? Something this morning, or maybe last night?”  


The kid looked away from her, back into his house, and then just started crying. As soon as he did, Duke started howling, which set Nathan off into hysterical shrieking. In the distance, Audrey heard the start of other unearthly sounds of distress before she clapped her hands over her ears and glared at both of her boys.  


“ _Not helping_!” she shouted at Duke as she reached out to the child and began to tug him into the house away from the commotion. Her reprimand did nothing to shut them all up, so she closed the door instead. A moment later the house shook as Nathan landed on the roof, the shrill sound of his shrieking not muffled nearly enough by the walls.  


She herded the child over to the nearest soft seat, a long couch in the worst shade of green she had ever seen. When he didn’t appear inclined to sit, she picked him up and set him on the edge, settling him in and wiggling his dragon toy just a little to get his attention. He sniffled and rubbed at his eyes with the heel of one hand.  


“It’s okay,” she told him. “How about we talk about something else? What’s your name?”  


“Ryan,” he said with a hiccup. He sniffled again as Audrey smiled at him.  


“Ryan. My name is Audrey,” she said. “And what’s your friend’s name?”  


Ryan looked down at his stuffed dragon, and his eyes welled up with tears again. “His name is- is Elvis.”  


Audrey blinked, but took that in stride. “That’s a good name for a dragon,” she said. “My dragon’s name is Nathan.”  


At that, Ryan gave a small smile. “ _Nathan_?” he said, like it was the silliest thing he had ever heard. “That’s not a dragon name.”  


“You’re right,” Audrey said with a nod. “That’s because he’s not supposed to be a dragon. Do you know why he is dragon today?”  


Ryan sniffled, clutching Elvis a little closer for a moment. Audrey let him think about it, let him decide when to talk again. Outside, the howling and shrieking had died away, and Audrey wondered if it was going to start up again if the boy tried to talk about what had happened.  


“Because of me,” Ryan said tentatively, looking up at her for approval.  


“Because of your Trouble,” Audrey corrected. “It isn’t your fault, Ryan. You didn’t do anything wrong. But you can help me to make it better, if you want.”  


“How?” Ryan asked, a mix of hope and wariness.  


“Sometimes, when something bad or sad happens to a person, things like this happen,” she explained carefully. “But if we know what that bad or sad thing is, then maybe we can fix it. I’m really good at fixing things.”  


For a long few moments, Ryan stared at her uncertainly, and then slowly, so very slowly, he loosened his grip on Elvis. Audrey leaned away just a little to give him space as he turned the stuffed animal around to face her. It looked very well loved, with a few patches rubbed soft from play, a loose eye button, and a seam that had started to unravel.  


Tears welled in Ryan’s eyes again, his chin wobbling a little as his lips turned into a frown. “I don’t-” He gave a great big sniffle, obviously on the edge of crying again, and Audrey heard the beginnings of _unrest_ outside. “I don’t want Elvis to di-i-iieeee.”  


The shrieking began anew from the rooftop, joined by the echoing howls of more than one wolf and a few creatures that Audrey didn’t recognize.  


All Audrey could do was stare blankly at the doll as everything clicked into place.  


Her boyfriends had both become dangerous mythical beasts because this child was afraid his stuffed toy was going to die of an unraveled seam.  


Her bark of laughter startled Ryan and everything went eerily silent. “Oh, honey,” she said, trying to keep her smile in check as she reached out and touched Ryan’s cheek and then slipped the toy from his hands. “Elvis is a dragon,” she told him. “And dragons don’t die. He just needs a few stitches, is all. Like getting a bandaid.”  


Ryan stared up at her, looking torn between believing her and starting crying again as she stood. The former eventually won when she walked away from him carrying Elvis. He followed her first to the bathroom and then to the kitchen, and then to what she guessed was his parents’ bedroom until she located a small sewing kit.  


They settled together on the edge of the bed, and Ryan watched avidly as Audrey put a few ragged stitches into the seam along Elvis’ face, patching him up as best as she could for having almost no experience with stitching cloth instead of flesh. For good measure, she tightened the strings on the loose eye button, threading a few fresh stitches there as well.  


When she was done, she passed the stuffed dragon back to Ryan for inspection. “See? He’s as good as new,” she told him with a soft smile.  


Ryan gave Elvis a dubious once over, but the seam was sewn shut and the eye was intact, and Audrey’s logic must have seemed sound. He looked up at her with a very earnest expression. “Thank you,” he said quietly.  


“You’re welcome,” she told him. “And, if anything else happens to him, you have your mom call me, and I’ll come over myself and fix him up again, okay?”  


“Okay,” Ryan agreed with a nod. He tipped his head a little. “What about your dragon?”  


Audrey raised both eyebrows in surprise, because for a moment she had forgotten the shrieking, howling mess awaiting her outside the house. “Well, why don’t we go see?” She tamped down on the nervous fluttering in her belly, wondering whether they would find beasts or boys when they checked.  


Wiggling off the edge of the bed, Ryan led her back downstairs and out the front door. As soon as she could see outside, she turned Ryan right back around and ushered him into the house. “Stay,” she told him. “I think everything is okay, but just- just stay here.”  


She closed the front door so that Ryan couldn’t sneak out after her, and started across the lawn to where a very naked Duke was standing, looking bewildered. He caught sight of Audrey, and she hid her laughter behind one hand as he gave her an even more confused look.  


“I’m having one of those Haven moments,” he told her.  


“Parker?” drifted Nathan’s voice before Audrey could explain anything. She and Duke both turned to look up, up, up to the roof of Ryan’s house, where Nathan was hiding halfway behind the edge of the chimney. “What exactly is going on?”  


“You’re naked on a rooftop!” she yelled up at him, and then burst into laughter at his unamused expression. Then she took Duke by the arm and began to move back toward the house. They were going to need clothes before she could have this conversation with a straight face.

\---------

“I’m going to miss flying,” Nathan admitted later that night from where he lay curled around her. The words were warm on the back of Audrey’s neck, and she smiled.  


“You learned pretty quickly,” she told him. “When you left the Gull you were barely able to keep in the sky.”  


“Speaking of when you left,” Duke mumbled. Audrey chuckled, knowing that he’d been nearly asleep when Nathan started musing.  


“Sorry about that,” Nathan told him, tone colored with the blush Audrey knew was on his cheeks. The apartment was still a mess, the doorway smashed beyond recognition. They both knew that Nathan was feeling guilty about destroying her space, but Duke had promised to get it fixed before the weekend, and for now they were all safely together on the _Rouge_. “Didn’t do it on purpose.”  


“I know,” Duke said softly, reaching over to twine his fingers with Nathan’s in reassurance. Audrey felt the flex of Nathan squeezing back.  


And Audrey knew that Nathan really _did_ know.  


After they had checked around the town to ensure that everyone was safely back to normal, Audrey had more or less explained to them what had happened. As she had talked, they began to fill in more and more of the blanks, until they were the ones telling her the story. Duke admitted that the more she had touched him as a wolf, the more he had remembered being human. When she asked, Nathan had agreed that everything had been wild and fuzzy before she laid her hands on him the first time.  


However it had gone, she was happy to have them back now, close and safe and human. She smiled as she touched their hands, running just the tips of her fingers over their skin just to hear the soft hitch in their breathing.  


“I mean, one good thing did come of all this,” she told them softly, doing her best to keep her laughter out of her voice.  


“What’s that?” Nathan asked, releasing Duke’s fingers and turning his hand over so that she would touching his palm.  


“I can honestly say you’ve been a dragon in bed,” she replied.  


Duke’s choked burst of laughter broke her control and she grinned. She felt Nathan’s groan as a rumble down her back, pleasant and amused. Duke was still shaking with laughter when she fixed him with a smug look.  


“I don’t know what you’re laughing about,” she told Duke. “I seem to recall you looked pretty good in a collar,” she told him, tracing the phantom line of where his necklaces usually lay along the edge of his throat.  


_That_ shut him up, sent a shiver through him as he caught her eye, and she heard Nathan’s breath go soft and stuttered behind her at the implication. _That_ surprised _her_.  


Maybe _two_ good things would come from the day, she thought with a smile.


End file.
